Column : Sentara

“When elephants fight the grass suffers,” says an old African proverb. So when Sentara Health and Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Virginia, Hampton Roads’ two health care elephants, lock tusks in a battle to the death, we are that grass and it’s our wallets that will get trampled. Hampton Roads is one of the tightest health insurance markets in Virginia. On the individual Affordable Care Act marketplace, residents can choose between exactly two carriers: Anthem and Sentara. Their brawl is over Sentara‘s insistence that Anthem increase its payments by 6. 2% while Anthem, saying it wants to keep costs down for its policyholders, has asked for a 1% reduction. With no agreement in sight, Sentara has notified Anthem that most of its contracts with Anthem will expire at year’s end.